Playlist: Summer ’15

Posted on August 31, 2015

It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to publish a playlist but here’s our fourth installment in our musical journey through the soundscapes of Spotify. As a reminder, you don’t have to be registered with Spotify to listen to our playlist, just play it in-browser at the end of this post. Summer’s beginning to wind down; the kids are headed back to school and Halloween stores seem to be popping up everywhere in our little corner of Los Angeles but it’s still hot as hell and the unforgiving heat combined with unusual humidity has us dragging our summer day trips on for just a few more weeks. Per usual we’ve been doing a lot of driving with the AC blasting and when not driving we’re parked on the couch trying to avoid working up a sweat by moving, even slightly. Whether you’re driving, working, or trying to beat the heat by sipping a few cold ones this playlist is sure to have something to get you by.

There’s a bunch of instrumental tracks on this one combined with some Americana goodness to remind you of the mountains and maybe some cooler days that lay ahead. There’s plenty of standout tracks here from our favorites Wilco and Dawes along with some newcomers to the playlist: The Six Parts Seven, The Barr Brothers, Alluvium, Gardens & Villa, Other Lives, and more. There’s also the classic track “Jane” by Jefferson Starship nestled in the first half of the playlist with a heavy nod to the revamp of Wet Hot American Summer. The list concludes with a completely out of character but necessary track from Kamasi Washington who recently released his solo endeavor, The Epic, for which I was fortunate enough to attend the incredible release show for. If you like jazz, this one should blow you away.

The cover art for this playlist is from our annual summer pilgrimage to Yosemite National Park. We summited the legendary Half Dome this time around and found this epic cairn (it’s called a cairn, I had no idea…) situated at the top. Full post on that trip coming soon but here’s a little piece from it now. Click here to listen to the full playlist.